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Administrative Staff

Cheryl Boyle, Registrar

Cheryl Boyle handles all billing and registration processes for the Academy of Music. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in education, with an emphasis on special education, from Indiana State University. She continued her education at Purdue University and Loyola University focusing on Educational Leadership.

Mrs. Boyle is an experienced educator and administrator. She taught students in grades 1-12 with emotional and behavioral issues in Indiana, Illinois and California, served as a consultant to five school districts serving students with physical disabilities in northwest Indiana, and was the Dean of Students at Glencoe (IL) Middle School, where she was in charge of all scheduling and discipline issues.

Upon moving to Wisconsin, Mrs. Boyle worked as a special education teacher in the Appleton Area School District. She was also the co-owner and co-founder of KC Candies, where she developed recipes, created marketing plans and budgets, and sold and distributed the company’s products. Her gourmet caramel pears won a Best of Cleveland Award and were featured at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Karen Bruno, Director

Karen Bruno has been the director of the Academy since 2010 and a member of its teaching staff since 1996. In addition to her administrative duties, she teaches the Bel Canto Girl Choir singers and is the artistic director of the Girl Choir program. She received the Bachelor of Arts degree in both economics and music from Smith College, a teaching certificate from Lawrence University's Conservatory of Music, and the Master of Music degree in music education from Boston University. She has taught choral music in the Appleton and Oshkosh school districts and at an international school in Senegal, West Africa. Bruno has been a guest speaker and adjunct professor in a variety of Lawrence Conservatory music education classes and has served as both cooperating and practicum teacher for students from Lawrence and St. Norbert College.

As a guest conductor, Ms. Bruno has been invited to work with the South Dakota All-State Children's Choir, numerous regional honor choirs, the Singing in Wisconsin festival, and is a past staff member of the Wisconsin School Music Association's Treble Honor Choir. She served for six years as the repertoire and standards chair for Children and Community Youth Choirs in the North Central Division of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), is a member of the VoiceCare Network, and serves on the committee advocating the Comprehensive Musicianship through Performance (CMP) method of teaching. She represents the Academy within the Fox Arts Network, writes an arts-focused column several times per year for the Post Crescent newspaper, and has served on music scholarship selection committees on behalf of the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region.

Ms. Bruno is a two-time recipient of the WCDA's Five-Star Award, a recipient of Lawrence University's Pi Kappa Lambda award for excellence in music education, a Rotary Scholarship Award winner, and was recognized by the Danbury (CT) Music Centre for providing outstanding musical opportunities for youth in the United States. Under her tutelage, Bel Canto was awarded Second Place in the national American Prize competition and has performed, by invitation, on state and divisional conventions of choral conductors.

Anne Powling, Youth Ensembles Coordinator

Anne Powling is the liaison between youth ensemble members (ASTRO, Girl Choir, Symphonic Band, Wind Ensemble) and the Academy office. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of East Anglia, England, a teaching certificate from the University of Winchester, England, and an Advanced Diploma in reading and language development from the Open University, England. She has taught English for twenty years across the age and ability range, and has worked in schools as a curriculum advisor and administrator. As a member of the National Association of Teachers of English, she published papers on the teaching of poetry in schools and developing language learning across the curriculum, appearing as a guest speaker at the organization's local conventions and national conferences.

In 1991, she was invited by Oxford University Press to join a team of authors and teachers to produce a series of five text books for English teachers as part of the National Literacy strategy in England and Wales. Following the publication and success of these books, she was invited to work as a literacy consultant in elementary schools across the south of England, working with teachers and administrators on the development of their English curriculum. In 2001, she joined a team of English consultants that developed strategies enabling high school teachers to develop literacy across the curriculum.

Mrs. Powling immigrated to the United States with her family in 2004, settling in Appleton, Wisconsin. After working as a teacher in Appleton and De Pere, she joined the Academy of Music in 2012 in her current role.

Theresa Shifflett, Program and Marketing Assistant

Theresa Shifflett handles the Academy's social media, Web site, and print materials. She received the Bachelor of Arts degree from University of Wisconsin-Green Bay with a degree in communications and an emphasis in public relations.

Ms. Shifflett has several years of experience working for non-profit agencies in the Fox Valley. She coordinated the Jingle Bell Run for the Arthritis Foundation and worked in the marketing department of the Greater Green Bay YMCA. In addition to her non-profit experience, she worked at Baer Performance Marketing and continues to work part-time at Van Abel's of Hollandtown. From the fall of 2011 until the spring of 2014, she worked for Macy's in Delaware, where her husband was stationed with the United States Air Force.